Friday, July 21, 2017

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! As I child one of my favorite memories is making ice cream with my grandparents in an old fashioned ice cream maker with the rock salt and the ice. My siblings and I would take turns cranking the handle and after what seemed like hours we had the best ice cream that we had ever tasted, perhaps it was so good because we had to work so hard to make it.

Nowadays I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker that allows me to have ice cream 20 minutes after I make the mixture. Certainly not as much fun but still as tasty. If you do not have an ice cream maker do not worry, you can pour the mixture into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and freeze until firm(typically overnight).

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

3 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder

5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Warm 1 cup of the cream with cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the sauce pan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Or pour into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and freeze until firm. After the mixture is firm scoop out a few scoops of ice cream into a cup or a cone and enjoy. Linking to:Savvy Southern Stlye

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Chocolate cake is a favorite of many, but often times people like a change from chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, they like to mix it up with another flavor of frosting, sometime peanut butter, or raspberry, my personal favorite is white buttercream.

This cake is fabulous, if I do say so myself, the cake is so moist and fudgy and it is my "go to" recipe, I added fudge filling that is so scrumptious you could just eat it from the pan with a spoon. The frosting is a simple white buttercream, if it is a special occasion you could tint the frosting with food coloring and then pipe it on the cake to make it a bit more special. I just troweled my frosting on with an offset spatula. I like lots of frosting! Do you?

In your mixer, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Add the eggs, melted butter, vanilla, and buttermilk, and mix until just combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir the hot coffee into the batter by hand. The batter will be runny. Pour into your cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean with just a few bits of cake stuck to it. For 9 inch pans, that should be anywhere from 20-35 minutes.

When you remove each cake from the oven, let it cool, run a knife around the edges of the pan, and carefully remove it from the pan onto a baking rack. Let cool before frosting.

Fudge Filling:

1 cup of sugar

1/3 cup milk

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Put first 3 ingredients into a sauce pan, over low heat bring to a boil, stirring constantly. The sugar should be dissolved. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and then whisk them until creamy and cooled.

In the bowl of a stand mixer mix the butter and the powdered sugar beat until blended, then add salt, mix. Add milk and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy, about another 3-5 minutes.

Once cake is cooled, cut each cake in half, then place 1 layer on a plate and spread some fudge filling over the layer. Then place another layer on top and frost with fudge filling, place third layer onto and frost, and then place the last layer on top.

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